The Divine Comedy by Dante: The Vision of Hell, Or The Inferno: Canto I

In the midway of this our mortal life,     I found me in a gloomy wood, astray     Gone from the path direct: and e'en to tell     It were no easy task, how savage wild     That forest, how robust and rough its growth,     Which to remember only, my dismay     Renews, in bitterness not far from death.     Yet to discourse of what there good befell,     All else will I relate discover'd there.     How first I enter'd it I scarce can say,     Such sleepy dullness in that instant weigh'd     My senses down, when the true path I left,     But when a mountain's foot I reach'd, where clos'd     The valley, that had pierc'd my heart with dread,     I look'd aloft, and saw his shoulders broad     Already vested with that planet's beam,     Who leads all wanderers safe through every way.     Then was a little respite to the fear,     That in my heart's recesses deep had lain,     All of that night, so pitifully pass'd:     And as a man, with difficult short breath,     Forespent with toiling, 'scap'd from sea to shore,     Turns to the perilous wide waste, and stands     At gaze; e'en so my spirit, that yet fail'd     Struggling with terror, turn'd to view the straits,     That none hath pass'd and liv'd.    My weary frame     After short pause recomforted, again     I journey'd on over that lonely steep,     The hinder foot still firmer.    Scarce the ascent     Began, when, lo! a panther, nimble, light,     And cover'd with a speckled skin, appear'd,     Nor, when it saw me, vanish'd, rather strove     To check my onward going; that ofttimes     With purpose to retrace my steps I turn'd.     The hour was morning's prime, and on his way     Aloft the sun ascended with those stars,     That with him rose, when Love divine first mov'd     Those its fair works: so that with joyous hope     All things conspir'd to fill me, the gay skin     Of that swift animal, the matin dawn     And the sweet season.    Soon that joy was chas'd,     And by new dread succeeded, when in view     A lion came, 'gainst me, as it appear'd,     With his head held aloft and hunger-mad,     That e'en the air was fear-struck.    A she-wolf     Was at his heels, who in her leanness seem'd     Full of all wants, and many a land hath made     Disconsolate ere now.    She with such fear     O'erwhelmed me, at the sight of her appall'd,     That of the height all hope I lost.    As one,     Who with his gain elated, sees the time     When all unwares is gone, he inwardly     Mourns with heart-griping anguish; such was I,     Haunted by that fell beast, never at peace,     Who coming o'er against me, by degrees     Impell'd me where the sun in silence rests.     While to the lower space with backward step     I fell, my ken discern'd the form one of one,     Whose voice seem'd faint through long disuse of speech.     When him in that great desert I espied,     "Have mercy on me!" cried I out aloud,     "Spirit! or living man! what e'er thou be!"     He answer'd: "Now not man, man once I was,     And born of Lombard parents, Mantuana both     By country, when the power of Julius yet     Was scarcely firm.    At Rome my life was past     Beneath the mild Augustus, in the time     Of fabled deities and false.    A bard     Was I, and made Anchises' upright son     The subject of my song, who came from Troy,     When the flames prey'd on Ilium's haughty towers.     But thou, say wherefore to such perils past     Return'st thou?    wherefore not this pleasant mount     Ascendest, cause and source of all delight?"     "And art thou then that Virgil, that well-spring,     From which such copious floods of eloquence     Have issued?"    I with front abash'd replied.     "Glory and light of all the tuneful train!     May it avail me that I long with zeal     Have sought thy volume, and with love immense     Have conn'd it o'er.    My master thou and guide!     Thou he from whom alone I have deriv'd     That style, which for its beauty into fame     Exalts me.    See the beast, from whom I fled.     O save me from her, thou illustrious sage!"     "For every vein and pulse throughout my frame     She hath made tremble."    He, soon as he saw     That I was weeping, answer'd, "Thou must needs     Another way pursue, if thou wouldst 'scape     From out that savage wilderness.    This beast,     At whom thou criest, her way will suffer none     To pass, and no less hindrance makes than death:     So bad and so accursed in her kind,     That never sated is her ravenous will,     Still after food more craving than before.     To many an animal in wedlock vile     She fastens, and shall yet to many more,     Until that greyhound come, who shall destroy     Her with sharp pain.    He will not life support     By earth nor its base metals, but by love,     Wisdom, and virtue, and his land shall be     The land 'twixt either Feltro.    In his might     Shall safety to Italia's plains arise,     For whose fair realm, Camilla, virgin pure,     Nisus, Euryalus, and Turnus fell.     He with incessant chase through every town     Shall worry, until he to hell at length     Restore her, thence by envy first let loose.     I for thy profit pond'ring now devise,     That thou mayst follow me, and I thy guide     Will lead thee hence through an eternal space,     Where thou shalt hear despairing shrieks, and see     Spirits of old tormented, who invoke     A second death; and those next view, who dwell     Content in fire, for that they hope to come,     Whene'er the time may be, among the blest,     Into whose regions if thou then desire     T' ascend, a spirit worthier then I     Must lead thee, in whose charge, when I depart,     Thou shalt be left: for that Almighty King,     Who reigns above, a rebel to his law,     Adjudges me, and therefore hath decreed,     That to his city none through me should come.     He in all parts hath sway; there rules, there holds     His citadel and throne.    O happy those,     Whom there he chooses!"    I to him in few:     "Bard! by that God, whom thou didst not adore,     I do beseech thee (that this ill and worse     I may escape) to lead me, where thou saidst,     That I Saint Peter's gate may view, and those     Who as thou tell'st, are in such dismal plight."     Onward he mov'd, I close his steps pursu'd.